Noticeboard

The Surgery will be closed from 3.30 pm until 6.30 pm on Thursday 28th March 2019 for mandatory staff training.

Medical Care when we're closed ...

NHS 111 If you require medical help, please call the NHS 111 service on 111. This service is for urgent medical situations or if you or a member of your family becomes ill and you are concerned.

Local Pharmacist Your local pharmacist is often able to help you with mild medical ailments.

999 If you injury or illness is severe or if you have had a serious accident, telephone 999 and ask for an ambulance. Alternatively visit your local A&E department.

Walk-in Centre. There is a weekend clinic in the local area for holidaymakers, people without a permanent registered GP or those seeking treatment outside of normal surgery hours. There are no telephone bookings - you just turn up and are allocated an appointment on arrival. Please bear in mind that these clinics can be extremely busy and you may have a long wait to be seen. The weekend Walk-in Centre is at:

++ IMPORTANT INFORMATION ++

Please note that the Surgery will be closed for mandatory training on Tuesday 9th June 2020 from 3.30 to 6.30 pm. If you have any urgent medical needs, please call NHS 111.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Thanks to all our patients for your co-operation during the Coronavirus pandemic and your patience and understanding whilst we have adapted to new ways of working. All the staff at the Village Surgery have worked incredibly hard to meet the challenges faced during this unprecedented crisis and will continue to do so.

The NHS is now moving into the next phase of 'reset and recovery' and we are starting to resume normal procedures/treatments. We would therefore like to give you an update on what's happening now and in the future.

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1. For the time being, we will continue to keep the doors to the GP surgery closed in order to protect our patients and staff.

2. We will only be able to offer telephone appointments for the time being; from this your GP will assess your needs and if a face to face appointment is required. Remember, we do have our e-Consult service which is proving to be a very popular online service. See the banner at the top of our website for further details.

3. When attending for a booked appointment, please continue to call the reception team on 01202 525252 to inform them that you have arrived and wait in your car or outside the main door whilst observing social distancing. We are looking at a more convenient way of doing this and hope to have this in place very soon.

Your doctor or nurse will then call you in and your temperature will be taken to ensure you do not have a fever. If you have symptoms of Coronavirus before your appointment (high temperature, loss of taste or smell and/or a new persistent cough), please do NOT come to the surgery but log on to NHS 111 Online.

4. Please wear a mask or face covering when attending for your appointment and a home made cover or scarf is acceptable. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with a mask due to the difficulty in acquiring PPE for our own staff.

5. Always observe social distancing when waiting to come into the surgery and maintain a distance of 2m (6 ft) from other people.

6. Attend for your appointment as close to the appointment time as possible in order to avoid too many people gathering at one time. Our clinicians will try and keep to time as best them can.

7. It is vitally important that all child and adult immunisations are continued. Please book these as normal.

8. We are continuing with cervical smears and it is very important that ladies receiving an invitation should not hesitate to book an appointment with us. WE ARE AWARE OF A SCAM WHERE WOMEN ARE BEING CONTACTED BY TEXT ADVISING THEM THAT THEY ARE OVERDUE A SMEAR TEST. THEY ARE THEN ASKED TO CALL A MOBILE NUMBER AND PROVIDE PERSONAL DETAILS. PLEASE DO NOT RING THIS NUMBER.

9. Please can patients nominate a pharmacy if they need drugs etc. This will enable your GP to send your prescription electronically so you can collect your medication directly from the pharmacy. See our 'Electronic Prescribing Service' article below.

We will continue to keep our patients up to date as much as we can in this rapidly changing situation and appreciate your patience.

Dr Gemma Gardner

We are delighted to inform you that Dr Gardner is expecting and has now started maternity leave before her baby arrives. We all wish her and her family best wishes for the happy event.

We therefore welcome Dr Iain Fullerton and Dr Miles Fletcher to the surgery who will be providing locum cover during Dr Gardner's absence. Drs Fullerton and Fletcher are very experienced GPs who have worked with us regularly and we welcome them to the Surgery.

From 20th May, the Government announced that everyone is now OPTED IN for organ donation and will need to OPT OUT should they not want to donate. If you do wish to opt out, please contact the Organ Donation Service on 0300 303 2094 or obtain further details from their website www.organdonation.nhs.uk.

We appreciate that this is a distressing time for everyone but especially for our vulnerable patients and those who are shielding; please be reassured that we will do all we can to help you. However, if you have any questions or concerns, you are welcome to contact Help & Care who are offering Wellness Checks for vulnerable patients. The check is a structured friendly conversation aiming to provide guidance, support and reassurance to ensure you are physically and mentally well. Help & Care staff are experienced advisers with excellent local Dorset wide knowledge and are fully DBS checked. Call them on 0303 303 0153 and leave a message; one of their staff members will then contact you as soon as possible.

Mental Health

The current COVID-19 (Coronavirus) situation is particularly difficult for people who are experiencing mental ill health and emotional distress. The situation is unprecedented and will impact the way that we run our Access Mental Health services.

To ensure the safety of our staff and the public, the Retreat drop-in services in Bournemouth and Dorchester are closed for the foreseeable future. We have also closed our Community Front Rooms, but alternative arrangements are being put in place.

If you require urgent mental health support, please call the 24/7 Connections phone line (0300 123 5440) in the first instance and you will be signposted to the right service for the support you need.

CORONAVIRUS AND REQUEST FOR DOCTOR'S NOTE (The Med3 'Fit Note')

If you remain unwell and unfit to work after 7 days, the current advice is to visit www.111.nhs.uk where there is an online self-assessment tool: you may be invited to call 111 and given further advice and a Med3 certificate will be emailed to you. YOU DO NOT NEED TO CONTACT YOUR GP. Please see the link below for further advice.

Help for Carers

We know that in the current situation carers are under enormous pressure. We hope that the information resources below will help carers across the county access the help and information they need.

Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) area

CRISP provides information, support and Coronavirus advice for carers. You can also contact CRISP on 01202 458204 or Email: carersupport@bcpcouncil.gov.uk

Carers UK provides national coronavirus updates. If you have received an NHS letter or are caring for someone who has, you can register for further support or call 0800 028 8327, the government’s new dedicated helpline.

Children

COVID-19 is unlikely to make your child seriously unwell, but they like everyone else might be infectious: so it is important to stay at home if they are managing well.

However, all the ‘normal’ illnesses that can make children severely unwell can still occur and there is a risk that parents may delay bringing their child to the attention of a healthcare professionals even if they are unwell because of concerns about COVID-19. GPs and hospitals are still providing safe care as they have always done for children . If you are not sure if your child is unwell and whether they need to be seen, click here, call 111 or contact your GP. For information about crying babies, click here.

If your child appears severely unwell and advice is not quickly available call 999 or take them to ED as you would in other times.”

Healthy Start

During this difficult time, families may be struggling to access food due to a decrease in their household income. In order to help, the Healthy Start scheme provides eligible families with a monetary voucher towards the cost of essential food items such as fruit, vegetables and milk to as many families as possible. Further details on this voucher scheme are available via this link:

The Electronic Prescribing Service - Update March 2020

This spring, the next stage of the Electronic Prescribing Service (EPS) was introduced by the NHS. This means that we will now be sending virtually ALL prescriptions via the EPS. This will mean that your GP or Nurse Practitioner will forward your prescription electronically to your nominated pharmacy or for those without one, your GP will give you a 'token' prescription that you can present to any pharmacy of your choice who will then download your medication from a secure data cloud. Please remember that the Pharmacist may not have your medication available, so please allow two working days to collect it.

Further details are available in the information sheet below. If you decide you would like to use this service, please print off and complete a 'Pharmacy Nomination Form' shown below and bring it to reception with some photographic ID as soon as possible so we can up date your details.

Travelling Abroad?

Please see our article on vaccines for foreign travel and how we can help you. However please remember - patients who intend to travel abroad are required to phone through the surgery 5-7 days after you have submitted your travel form to find out exactly which travel vaccinations they require in advance of their appointment.

On Line Service - SystmOnline

We are very pleased to announce that our internet service called ’SystmOnline’ has been very popular with our patients. It is a very easy to use website which enables you to:

View existing appointments

Book a 10 minute doctor's appointment over the next four weeks.

Cancel an appointment.

View your medication.

Request repeat medication.

Change your contact details.

View your Summary Care Record

Review your detailed recorded medical record.

The Summary Care Record details the allergies and sensitivities, acute medications issued in the last 12 months and current and past repeat medications. Please see our 'Latest News' section for further details and how you can register for this service.

Review your detailed recorded medical record

You now have the facility to review your detailed recorded medical record. However, requests for this service must be assessed by your usual GP to ensure that there is nothing in your record that your GP considers may be harmful to your wellbeing. This may take up to 10 working days.